Midland Great Western Retaining Walls Monitoring Contract

Challenge

SOCOTEC Ireland has taken on a project at the Phibsborough Luas Stop in Dublin as it requires structural support and monitoring. The area covered is a live rail environment with trams actively passing through and covers approximately 250m of west and east walls adjacent to operational light rail infrastructure.

Project Description and Background

Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) and Transdev Dublin Light Rail (TDLR) needed the retaining walls at Phibsborough Luas Stop monitored for structural stability to protect the adjacent operational station, including platforms and nearby track. At this point on the railway line, the cutting is very narrow, with the stop surrounded by steep walls on each side covered with stone bricks.

The infrastructure requires assessments of the condition of the retaining walls, the structural movement, groundwater influence, visual surveillance, alarm management and maintenance of the monitoring system.

This project is still in progress with ongoing monitoring for the site.

Solution

SOCOTEC has designed, commissioned and supplied a remote monitoring system and full instrumentation suite for the retaining walls at Phibsborough Luas Stop. The system combines tilt sensors, accelerometers, piezometers and fixed cameras to monitor wall displacement, vibration and acceleration effects, groundwater behaviour and visible condition change.

The system configuration was developed to meet TII’s monitoring and reporting requirements, with the monitoring architecture adapted to align with the needs and instrumentation selected to provide reliable long-term structural and environmental data regarding the retaining walls.

The support scope for the project includes monitoring, maintenance, data management, reporting, scheduled software and firmware updates, ad hoc security and performance patches, remote diagnostics and remote configuration.

For security, the system in place automatically captures and transmits the relevant sensor data and images when there is a threshold breach and sends the information to SOCOTEC’s presentation suite. To support this, complex alarm protocols are tailored to the project.

Conclusion

The system delivers continuous data capture across all sensor types with no loss of monitoring coverage.

The threshold alerts enable timely intervention, earlier identification of movement trends and better risk management for both wall stability and public safety. The reporting suites and client guidance for this aspect of the project led the engineering teams to interrogate trends, alarms and event histories directly. The system also reduces site visits and associated emissions through remote diagnostics and automated reporting, while low-power instrumentation and use of existing infrastructure reduced material and energy demand.

Overall, the monitoring system supports construction assurance, asset protection and timely identification of abnormal behaviour in proximity to operational rail infrastructure.